2010 February | MEL: HOT OR NOT

HOT: Nuffnang Food Bloggers Dinner, Collins Kitchen, Grand Hyatt, 123 Collins St, Melbourne (Part 1)

February 28, 2010 ⋅ 17 comments

There are definitely some advantages to writing about food obsessively. Nuffnang is a blog advertising community which brings advertisers and bloggers together so that advertisers can target their products to blog readers and bloggers can make some money from the advertising – you may have noticed Nuffnang ads occasionally on MEL: HOT OR NOT. Nuffnang [...]

HOT Chat: Akisa from BeautySwatch

February 28, 2010 ⋅ 2 comments

You may remember that at the Nuffnang Christmas party I met Akisa, the brains behind a cool beauty website called BeautySwatch. I liked her idea so much (a huge colour library containing swatches for thousands of lipsticks) I thought you might be interested to hear more about Akisa and her work with BeautySwatch. Hi Akisa, can [...]

HOT: uSpa Travel Gift Packs giveaway

February 27, 2010 ⋅ 16 comments

If you missed out on the Chai mamma giveaway last week, don’t worry because today I have another giveaway for MEL: HOT OR NOT readers! Prahran hair and beauty salon Blondes to Brunettes is the first hair salon in Australia to stock uSPA, a botanical haircare range which harnesses the benefits of organic plants and [...]

HOT: Funky Curry and Vindaloo Against Violence, 164 Bourke St, Melbourne

February 26, 2010 ⋅ 8 comments

Today’s post is a bit of a mishmash – my views on a serious issue as well as a light-hearted food review. Firstly, you may or may not have been aware that last Wednesday 24 February was Vindaloo Against Violence day. Melbourne, Victoria and Australia has been subject to some shameful local and international press [...]

HOT: A Single Man, Rivoli Cinemas, 200 Camberwell Road, East Hawthorn

February 25, 2010 ⋅ Post a comment

Colin Firth won a BAFTA a few days ago with his role as George Falconer in A Single Man. If you watch this film you’ll see why. The first foray of Tom Ford, uber-fashion designer, into film is an intense and elegiac work about the nature of love, loneliness, repression and the small poignant moments [...]

HOT: The Social Studio, 128 Smith St, Collingwood

February 24, 2010 ⋅ 5 comments

Fitzroy/Collingwood seems to be the hotbed of social enterprise businesses in Melbourne (see my review of restaurant Charcoal Lane), and in late 2009 another one opened around the corner from me – The Social Studio. The Social Studio is a non-profit fashion studio space staffed by approximately 20 young members of Melbourne’s refugee community and [...]

HOT: In Conversation with Jennifer Byrne: Helen Garner, The Wheeler Centre, 176 Little Lonsdale St, Melbourne

February 23, 2010 ⋅ Post a comment

Did you know that Melbourne is the world’s second UNESCO City of Literature, part of UNESCO’s Creative Cities Network? So it’s fitting that the city has created a space such as The Wheeler Centre (named after Tony and Maureen Wheeler, the founders of Lonely Planet), a centre for books, writing and ideas which launched just [...]

HOT: Gastronomica Slow Food Quiz, Collins Quarter, 86A Collins St, Melbourne

February 22, 2010 ⋅ 7 comments

I’m known as a bit of a foodie amongst my friends. However, at food quiz Gastronomica I discovered that my small font of knowledge was nothing compared to the food nerdiness displayed by the rest of Team Phat Preston, including food bloggers Tummyrumbles, Melbourne Gastronome, Tomato, Eating with Jack, Essjay Eats and Eatnik. In fact, [...]

HOT Chat: Ashley Tell from Golden Palomino Vintage and Darling Clementine

February 21, 2010 ⋅ Post a comment

Today’s HOT Chat is also a guest post by Poppy, a Melbourne blogger who I met at the Nuffnang Christmas Party and the author of Poppy Gets a Life (which you’ll see is a MEL: HOT Read). Poppy’s blog is all about her move off the corporate ladder into a job where she has the [...]

HOT: Chai mamma Giveaway winners!

February 20, 2010 ⋅ One comment

Thank you to everyone for your entries for the Chai mamma giveaway! I’ve dipped into the Kitchenaid of Fortune and here are our seven winners: LizB Mellie (Tummyrumbles) Tom pdids Emily (it pleases us) Jenny Amanda Please send your postal address to joyce@melhotornot.com to collect your prize of 2 x 120g packs of Chai mamma [...]